Premium Essay

Cutural Anthropology

In:

Submitted By joeman
Words 1877
Pages 8
The Nandi People

Cultural Anthropology

Joseph D. Middleton

July 22, 2011

The culture of the Nandi people

Gender

In the Nandi community, girls help in taking care of the children, doing domestic work, weeding in the fields, fetching firewood and water. Boys herd the cattle, help with plowing the fields. They also help in sorting out other miscellaneous tasks and errands. Boys may care for children and girls may also herd the cattle. This always happens if there is no child of the ideal sex in the family. All family members play a part when it comes to the process of production. During planting, the clear the land and do the initial breaking. A woman can help a man who is plowing land especially when she would like to use for growing vegetables. Everyone does the planting. Agricultural activities are common with women compared to men. Herding of the cattle is normally done by children. Women also herd cattle but men rarely do it. The milking of the cattle is a role left to women and children. When it comes to employment, it is normally the men who try seek either full-time or part-time employment. Unemployed men normally engage in entrepreneurial activities such as; charcoal burning, working in lands of large farmers, cattle trading and even collecting sand from river banks for sale to the people who make concrete. A few Nandi’s have artisan skills such as tailoring and bicycle repairers. These men are in the shopping centre. Very few Nandi women are either employed or seeking employment. (Oboler)

Marriage and family

The Nandi community performs initiations for both boys and girls. This happens at the age of between twelve and eighteen. The process is normally circumcision for boys and clitoridectomy for girls. The initiates should be brave, quiet and not to show any emotions. This test of courage is

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

The Namesake

...The film The Namesake started out while Ashoke Ganguli was traveling on a train to visit his grandfather. On the train Ashoke meets fellow traveler, Ghosh, who impresses upon him to start traveling. The train crashes and Ashoke almost dies but is found and survives. After the crash, Ashoke relocates to America for school. In 1977, Ashoke returns home to India to be arranged to marry Ashima. When Ashima accepts Ashoke’s marriage proposal, she has to move to New York with him where their residence becomes permanent. Ashima has to adapt and adjust to American culture, which is very hard for her because she has never been out of India and she misses her family. Shortly after, they become parents of a boy, who they name Nikhil, with the pet name Gogol, after his father’s favorite author. In time, they have their second child together, a girl named Sonia. Both kids grow up as rebellious, typical American teenagers and have very slight interest in their Bengali culture. When they visit India, they both feel very out of place especially with their grandparents who want them to get married and have children already. After visiting the Taj Mahal, Gogol knows he wants to become an architect. He studies at Yale and falls in love with a preppy, wealthy American girl named Maxine. Sonia continues to live the American way of life when she moves to California to live an independent life. Cultural tensions flare when he brings Maxine home to meet his parents, who want their children...

Words: 1365 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Assignment 1

...Assignment 1: Essay Due Week 4 and worth 100 points Read the selection in the textbook. Write a three to four (3-4) paragraph essay (250 words) which analyzes the “surprise ending” of the reading selection. APA format. Topic Choices: * Reading selection from Swift’s A Modest Proposal. Swift begins with offering the solution that the English could do things which might solve the problem of over-population and the mistreatment of citizens in Ireland and ends by offering the solution that an internal change in the Irish government would best solve the problem of over-population and a populace victimized by its own government. Read more about A Modest Proposal located at http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/swift/modest.html. For the reading selection you choose: 1. Clearly state in your own words the “surprise ending” in the reading you selected. Identify the point in the reading when you realized that the ending would be different from what the beginning of the reading suggested that it would be. 2. Since you were expecting a different ending, evaluate how successful the author was in convincing you to accept the validity of the “surprise ending” that was not clearly suggested at the beginning. * Include a cover page containing the tile of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length. The specific course...

Words: 333 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Identity

...Romaine Smith Susan Doody ENG 111 02/14/13 Outline The positive impact music has on one’s identity In his musical lyrics, Bob Marley, a singer, songwriter and musician, motivates people across the world with his positive and encouraging music. In his biggest hi “One Love, One Heart, Let’s Get Together and Feel Alright,” created an atmosphere of love and exhilaration 2among people of different backgrounds and culture. After his death, Marley was venerated by people all over the world for his outstanding work and role model to the society. An icon had died. The positive influence of a song can reflect one’s character in different ways. One’s culture, attitude and appearance create an identity that can leave a positive impact on society. The cultural identity is those attributes, behavior patterns, lifestyles, and social structures that distinguish a person from another. Culture is learned and passed through generations and includes the believes and value system of a society. If we can examine the role of culture in a group formation, for example. If participants are told they share musical taste with an individual, they are more likely to appraise them positively and want to become their friend….. All these components of culture have an effect on one’s character. Music can have both positive and negative influences on one’s attitude. For example, a child that tends to listen more positive and...

Words: 410 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Business Overseas

...Business Overseas James Hall AIU Online Unit 5 IP Business Overseas “No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive”. -Mahatma Gandhi In order for any business to travel overseas and find success they must first learn to understand and appreciate the culture in which they plan to thrive. Learning this and losing your sense of ethnocentrism, the belief that your own culture is superior to another, is something that many business fail to do and in turn never find success. In order to find success overseas we must first learn to view their culture with and open-mind, or cultural relativism, and judge them according to the standards of their society, not our own. You must look at many things before trying to establish a foothold overseas. To prevent culture clash you must recognize the barriers you may face including language, cultural values and cultural norms. One way to avoid language barrier is to make sure the plant opened in Asia has local personal that not only understand the language but also understand the region in which you expect to establish a foothold. If a business is unaware of the values in which the society holds they can risk offending rather than satisfying their desire for your product. This is why local personal is important. These individuals will not only be knowledgeable of the language, religion, values, and culture norms but they will be comfortable executing these values. This prevents the culture shock or disorientation one might feel...

Words: 755 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Marketing

...Chapter 3: Catering for the cultural and social environment of international marketing What is culture? * ‘Culture is the total way of life in a society’ (Fletcher, 1979) * Culture is the collective programming of the mind (Hofstede, 1980) Elements of culture * Material culture: technology and economics * Social institutions: concerned with the way people relate to each other * Relations with the universe: religion, superstition, and impact on value systems * Aesthetics: activities and art forms and dance all have a role in interpreting symbolic meanings in each culture. * Language: differ in the way they convey meanings The impact of culture on international marketing * Knowledge * Factual knowledge conveys meaning about a culture which appears straightforward. * Interpretive knowledge is based on feeling and intuition and is often influenced by past experiences. * Sensitivity * Cultural sensitivity involves being aware of the nuances (sắc thái) of the different culture, being empathetic with it and viewing it objectively * Collectivism * It plays a greater role in decision making because of the strength of family ties, strong affinity with the group. * Social conventions (quy ước) * Relative to eating: time take to eat the mail, the composition of each meal, … * Cognitive styles * Consumers are loyal to products varies between culture. Ex: Asian countries consumers are more loyal and less to switch...

Words: 607 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Role of Religion in Human Culture

...Role of religion in human culture Anthropologists define religion as a cultural universal that encompasses beliefs and behavior concerned with supernatural beings, powers and forces (Kottak, 2013). Even though it is a human universal, the rules of religion vary from culture to culture. Even within the major religious traditions, there may be a great many variations. Methodist traditions are different from Baptists who are widely different from Catholic tradition. Signs of religion date back as far as sixty to one hundred thousand years. Prior to the Neanderthals there were no signs of religion. Neanderthals were the first to bury their dead, suggesting a belief in an afterlife. Religion serves many different functions in society. First and foremost, it provides an answer to universal questions humans have. These questions are: What am I? Where do I come from and where do I go? What is death? What happens when I die? Why do bad things happen? What is the meaning of life? Religion can provide a sense of comfort and security to people as it provides explanations for events that are outside of people’s control. It also can establish and “maintain social control through a series of moral and ethical beliefs along with real or imagined rewards and punishments. (Kottak, 2013)” For most religious people, their beliefs are the very core of their world views. These believes also are important in defining humans’ ideas of what is right and wrong. If one does the right...

Words: 522 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Db Unit 3

...How are scholars able to find out how early people with no written records lived? Scholars use several techniques in order to establish and conclude a portrayal of early people’s lives, before any written records. They simply rely on findings that were left behind. Tools, bones, graveyards, hunting equipment, as well as weapons, art on pottery or cave walls, are some of the prehistoric finds, to name a few. These findings, when examined can tell scholars a lot about peoples lifestyle pre-written records. For example, by examining bones, a scholar would determine if people were malnourished, or whether they knew how to take care of broken bones or used any healing methods. What was prehistoric society like around the Amazon? Populations from North American and Europe did not find the prehistoric Amazon population interesting. The cultural differences were too vast, as opposed to societies around the Amazon. The Amazonian people believed in coexisting with their gods and relied heavily on their dangerous environment. I suppose the Amazon was a threat to societies around it, since they had not developed an acquired set of skills to survive. What ensured European domination in the New World? The Europeans were able to dominate the New World, by having armies that would take over natives ground, and have their own people settle. They also were in advantage knowing how to trade, how to build weapons, which were made of steel, as opposed to native culture who used leather, wood...

Words: 405 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

How Does Culture Affect Work

...Work plays an important part in our lives. Growing up we see our parents, grandparents and relatives work to provide for their family. In order to survive in this world, an individual has to work. A man’s basic needs; food, clothing and shelter comes with a price, and in order to have the basic needs a man has to work. Most people like us work in order to get compensated and have enough to feed the family. Some people work to succeed. They do not just have a job, but they want careers. They will challenge themselves to go higher and higher in the business world. They work not only for the money but for self-respect and gratification about themselves. Individuals, who are born rich, will consider pursuing their hobbies into work. They start their own fashion line, or perfumes, become a singer or actor, but all this is considered work. Different cultures look at work differently. I was born and raised in India. Growing up, friends, relatives and neighbors all at some point of time dreamt about coming to America, the land of opportunities. I knew a few people who came here to work, and heard stories from them about how the working environment in America is different from that in India. It made me want to come here and take advantage of the opportunities out here and make a name for myself. When I first came here and started working at the hospital, I came across various cultures, but all had one thing in common, they all worked hard. There was no job that was inferior to the...

Words: 507 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

The Impact of Cultural Capital on Advertisement

...The impact of Cultural Capital on advertisement Class Professor *** Name Date Overview The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu first proposed the concept of cultural capital. Since the 1980s, social capital has become a popular concept in many disciplines concerned and analysis of important starting point. Hofstede (1980) published a study in the field of cultural significance of the research results. In 1980s, scholars did a large number of cross-cultural consumer behavior based Hofstede’s cultural construct. After the 1990s, globalization and technological revolution in the joint action, cultural issues in all areas of marketing, reflected in all directions, the impact of cultural capital on advertisement journals were seen everywhere. "Advertising." The word of foreign origin, derived from the Latin word “Adteurture”; its basic meaning is the meaning of attention and induce the latter evolved into the English language “Advertise”. In recent years, advertising fills of people’s lives. From the television’s ads, newspaper’s ads, outdoor walls’ ads, to the network, advertising are seen every where. But in different cultural background, consumer values, consumption patterns and consumer behavior are different. Cultural capital has a deep impact on advertising, which cannot be ignored. Today's society is in economic globalization; all the advertising companies cannot separate from cultural capital. We need to know when planning to advertise the nation's culture, and...

Words: 1331 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Do You Think That Business Practices in an Islamic Country Are Likely to Differ from Business Practices in the United States? If so, How?

...“Do you think that business practices in an Islamic country are likely to differ from business practices in the United States? If so, how?” I think that business practices in an Islamic country are different from business practices in the United States, some factors influence the business practices in different cultures. As the culture, values and norms, social structure and diversity of individual all might affect the business practices. Culture is a complex factor that includes beliefs, knowledge, arts, morals, law, customs, and other capabilities obtained by people as members of society (Hill, 2011). Values and norms are the cores of the components for culture, values are general ideals about a society’s good, correct and desirable fact. Norms are the social rules and guidelines that suggest appropriate behavior in specific circumstances (Hill, 2011). I don’t know much about Islamic country, but the American culture is different from Islamic culture. Due to the religion, social structure and much diversity in the two different worlds, the business practices would affect by these differences. International business is different from national business due to the culture and society. The ethics in Islamic world, governs almost all aspects of people’s life. Ethical norms and moral codes discernable from some verses of the Quran, and the teachings of the Prophet are far reaching and comprehensive (Azim, n.d.). Islamic teachings extremely influence the observance...

Words: 582 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Williams and Culture

...Raymond Williams on Culture From "What is Culture", at http://www.wsu.edu:8001/vcwsu/commons/topics/culture/culture-definitions/raymond-williams.html Culture is ordinary: that is the first fact. Every human society has its own shape, its own purposes, its own meanings. Every human society expresses these, in institutions, and in arts and learning. The making of a society is the finding of common meanings and directions, and its growth is an active debate and amendment under the pressures of experience, contact, and discovery, writing themselves into the land. The growing society is there, yet it is also made and remade in every individual mind. The making of a mind is, first, the slow learning of shapes, purposes, and meanings, so that work, observation and communication are possible. Then, second, but equal in importance, is the testing of these in experience, the making of new observations, comparisons, and meanings. A culture has two aspects: the known meanings and directions, which its members are trained to; the new observations and meanings, which are offered and tested. These are the ordinary processes of human societies and human minds, and we see through them the nature of a culture: that it is always both traditional and creative; that it is both the most ordinary common meanings and the finest individual meanings. We use the word culture in these two senses: to mean a whole way of life--the common meanings; to mean the arts and learning--the special processes...

Words: 354 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Pcase

...Does Race Exist? * Posted 02.15.00 * NOVA The concept of race is one of the most intellectually and emotionally charged subjects, not only in society but in science as well. NOVA Online asked two leading anthropologists, Dr. Loring Brace of the University of Michigan and Dr. George Gill of the University of Wyoming, who fall on either side of the debate about whether race exists in biologic terms, to state their points of view. Regardless of where you stand on the issue, we think you will find their arguments well-reasoned and thought-provoking. Loring Brace and George Gill come down on different sides of the question Does race exist biologically? Read their viewpoints here. EnlargePhoto credit: © andipantz/iStockphoto AN ANTAGONIST'S PERSPECTIVE by C. Loring Brace I am going to start this essay with what may seem to many as an outrageous assertion: There is no such thing as a biological entity that warrants the term "race." The immediate reaction of most literate people is that this is obviously nonsense. The physician will retort, "What do you mean 'there is no such thing as race'? I see it in my practice everyday!" Jane Doe and John Roe will be equally incredulous. Note carefully, however, that my opening declaration did not claim that "there is no such thing as race." What I said is that there is no "biological entity that warrants the term 'race'." "You're splitting hairs," the reader may retort. "Stop playing verbal games and tell us what you really mean...

Words: 3799 - Pages: 16

Free Essay

Archaeological Anthropology

...Archaeological Anthropology TOPIC: Human evolution and the bow & arrow Summary Archaeologists study the material remains left by our ancestors in order to interpret cultural variation and changes in the past, more over it focuses on how human evolution. Human beings construct niches by inventing ways of using their relationships with on another and with the physical environment to make a living. As an example, referring to the subsistence strategies, we may tell that it can be divided into 2 different subtopic, food collectors and food producers. And in this case bow and arrow belongs the category of the tools of foragers. The tools allowed hunters to shoot prey more accurate than with spear. Archeologist argues that the innovation is more than a technological revolutions; it had a social consequences. Conferring to the scientific paper, there are two main major theories of criteria for falsification. One is Social-coercion theory; it’s an explanation for the rise of social complexity from Stony Brook University biologists Paul Bingham and Joanne Souza states from the new article. The primary prediction is when local subsistence capacity permits; local introduction of the bow will rapidly be followed by increases in social scale and economic intensifications. Another theory is Warfare theory, and the primary prediction is the local introduction of elite bow will result in increased interpolity warfare, with increases in social complexity and economic intensification resulting...

Words: 918 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Anthropology Outlines

...I. Human Adaptability Anthropology is the exploration of human diversity in time and space. Anthropology studies the whole of the human condition: past, present, and future; biology, society, language, and culture. Of particular interest is the diversity that comes through human adaptability. A. Adaptation, Variation, and Change 1. Adaptation refers to the processes by which organisms cope with environmental forces and stresses. 2. Humans use both biological and cultural means of adaptation. For example, human bodies can adapt biologically in three ways to high altitude: genetic adaptation, long-term physiological adaptation, and short-term physiological adaptation. Culturally, humans have developed technologies, such as pressurized airplane cabins equipped with oxygen masks, to deal with extreme environments. 3. As human history has unfolded, the social and cultural means of adaptation have become increasingly important. Much more recently, the spread of industrial production has profoundly affected human life. II. General Anthropology B. The academic discipline of anthropology, also known as general anthropology or "four-field" anthropology, includes four main subdisciplines or subfields. They are sociocultural, archaeological, biological, and linguistic anthropology. This four-field approach is distinctly American. 4. There are historical reasons for the inclusion of four subfields in a single disciple, with origins...

Words: 1563 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Mass Comm Final

...Mass Comm Final Paper Mass communication is typically recognized as the process of producing and distributing information, ideas, opinions, values and entertainment from a single, but regularly difficult, organization or source, through print or electronic channels, to large numbers of people. Mass communication channels or media include newspapers, magazines, books, radio, television, film, sound recordings and the Internet. Over the past four centuries mass communication has gained in importance and influence. It is an essential building block in the construction of human culture and civilization. Communication is essential for nourishing and transmitting culture, sharing knowledge, entertaining, envisioning futures, and motivating action. From the emergence of our earliest ancestor Australopithecus Africanus about five million years ago in Africa, the human species has used its ability to communicate to survive in harsh environments and populate planet Earth. The ability to communicate facilitated the sharing of information on food sources, contributed to the security of the species, and provided tools for articulating relationships between and among different groups of humans. Archeologists and anthropologists have concluded that the development of signs, signals and speech among proto-humans and early humans was in response to the need to store memory and distribute knowledge – a prerequisite for the survival of the species. Communication is essential to social and political...

Words: 252 - Pages: 2